Owner Heather Huntingford, who runs Kiss and Makeup in partnership with her mom Margaret, smiles when she observes that these days their style is all about well made sweatpants, precious jewels and a glass of champagne. But make no mistake, these are no department store sweatpants — with clothing lines drawn from LA and abroad, Heather’s penchant for comfort doesn’t sacrifice style.
Started as a 500-square-foot apothecary store in West Van, Kiss and Makeup is now housed on Lonsdale in North Vancouver. Heather first got the idea for the shop while finishing off her Human Kinetics degree, as a precursor to med school. “I was working at a local health food shop while going to university,” she recalls, “and I noticed that women would come in to buy quality makeup and skincare products and I thought there had to be a better way.” While the deviation from her degree may have seemed like a radical change for Heather, who was also a real tomboy at the time, her background in chemistry and the human body has helped her with sourcing the shop’s quality skincare lines that live up to their claims.